AM I MISSING?

Posted on May 18, 2022 by flamidwyfe

I’ve been off Facebook since April 26th. A handful of people have noticed (you know who you are and thanks for checking in!), but many haven’t, and that’s OK too. It does show me, however, how out of touch we are with ‘real life’ and how our attention span works in regard to what is in front of us now. I’ve also been off Twitter (which I spent minimal time on anyway).

What’s awesome, is that I can post blogs to Facebook, without actually logging in and getting pulled down in the whirlpool (cesspool?) of stories and news and Johnny Depp court updates and false smiles galore (of those perfect lives none of us live IRL). And that’s what I’m going to do regularly. Post things that are important to me in a blog and walk away.

Really awesome things that have happened since April 26th. I am WAY more productive. Running a business is a lot of work, it’s less work when you aren’t popping in on social media and coming up for air realizing you’ve been on for 35 minutes, long past what you had time for. A new semester started at the college I work for. Sydnie and Sadie turned 18!!! Sadie went to her last day of school last Friday and graduates high school, with honors, next Monday. My mom turned NINETY-ONE!!! I wasn’t sure she was going to make it to that milestone, but she did, and as always I am grateful. Sofia turned 14!! And I partially ruptured my patellar tendon… which has NOT been fun. And an amazing, thoughtful and loving friend suprised me with a gift yesterday that touched my heart and was exactly what I needed! I am blessed with some pretty awesome folks in my life!

So there it is… I’ve got a few scheduled blogs over the few days and they will post automatically. I am still on Messenger (for now) and of course you’re always welcome to text or call.

Namaste!

BULLET JOURNAL – 1

Posted on September 9, 2016 by flamidwyfe

I was introduced to Bullet Journaling last month by Kristi Ridd-Young the President of the Midwives College of Utah. I have been working on improving my time management and she talked to me about the Bullet Journal and why it works for her.

So I did a lot of research and realized this could be something that works for me. This is the best place to start if you want to learn more about this type of journaling: The Bullet Journal. The original Bullet Journal is not available in the U.S. right now and is shipping from the U.K. for more $$ than the journal itself, so I did some research and found other companies that sell “dot grid” notebooks and ordered from a really cool company called Cognitive Surplus. They are a science based notebook company with really awesome colors! I bought the Cellular Biology Vintage Softcover for my first journal and the Mathematics Vintage Softcover for my second.

Here’s Bullet Journal 1…

BULLET JOURNAL 1

So for tonight I’ve got the front page and my index pages done and I’m off to bed… last night was a late night getting back from Maroon 5 in Miami! 😀 Taking my quick reference guide to bed with me to do a little studying. The quick guide was done by Kim of tinyrayofsunshine.com. Her site is wonderful!

TITLE PAGE

INDEX PAGE

Ciao!

Silver Linings

Posted on February 11, 2016 by flamidwyfe

Although there is much sadness to write about, I want to share a happy story. A happy story that had me shedding tears of love, gratitude & happiness.

Jean-Sébastien wrote the post below on Facebook yesterday morning. Kelly, Scott, Jaymarie and I had been in chatting with him and Jan and the rest of the gang from Clowns Without Borders before our ferry trip to Chios.

This restaurant has been my favorite on Lesvos this past week. My first night I didn’t have enough cash to cover my bill and they don’t take cards. The owner told me to pay it when I had it. I did, of course, the next night when I went for dinner 😊

Here is Jean-Sébastien’s post:

Last night, here in lesbos, in the restaurant or we have our habits with the team of “clowns without borders” – a traditional restaurant Greek held by two twin brothers who cooks so well and for nothing (fresh tuna steak 300 G + accompaniment for 6,50 €!?) -‘s arrival a first family of Syrian refugees, then a 2th, then a 3th, 4th, 5th…

One of the bosses asked my friend Sabine Choucair, Lebanese Clown, come and translate the map in Arabic. She’s so grown from family to family for their describe the menu, and little by little, the tables were covered with large plates full of food warm and abundant.

The faces tired and anxious are relaxed, the mouths are untied.

The restaurant to finished by bleed out, and we found “between us”, The team of the restaurant, the team of clowns and a Syrian family.

We communicated as we could in Greek, English, Arabic. Little by little we bonded, and I could even play with one of their son, Omar, who barely a few hours earlier, soaked in the arms of his mother, trying not to die drowned in a rubber boat overcrowded.

Omar was very serene, very inquisitive, full of energy, to move the legs in its combination too big for him, but dry at least.

He has even offered a few big smiles, these smiles that are so beautiful that your heart opens all alone, whether you like it or not.

Omar has 3 months, and Omar’s fine.

Omar is the European tomorrow, with all due respect to all those who close their arms.

Welcome my grand, ahla w ‘ Sahla, welcome!

…

PS: when parents have wanted to pay the bill, the boss has refused. All is not lost in this complicated world…

All is not lost.

Jean-Sébastien and Omar, Lesvos, Greece

My dear readers, all is not lost ❤️

Ciao!

Serendipity and Love

Posted on December 17, 2015 by flamidwyfe

Sometimes in life serendipity happens. Serendipity is the occurrence and development of event by chance in a happy or beneficial way. This happened to me this week 🙂

I am going to Greece and Turkey to work in the refugee camps. I will be leaving on February 14 and will be there for 9 weeks. I will be providing well women and maternity care to women that are just arriving or who have been assigned a camp. I absolutely cannot wait!

As a result of this, I am fundraising to enable me to afford transportation, ground transportation, accommodation, supplies and shipping costs. I put together an email and decided to send it out to everyone in my AOL address book. I got a message back from C, asking how she knew me. I was able to cross reference her email in my mail folders and realized that we were both included in an email from someone very special in both of our lives. And thus we began a conversation as to what my purpose was for this trip and a little walk down memory lane. C has generously helped me put together a message to share with others and is going to send it out to her friends and family and share it on Facebook.

Two people with common threads, working together to help refugees in a far away land. This kind of connection is what living is all about! To add to the chance happy part, myself and 2 friends have planned a girls weekend for the one and only weekend I will be in town the first 7 months of this upcoming year. A reunion long overdue.

Here is part of the letter:

Dear Good People,

My name is Sandi Blankenship. I am a mom to 3, a grandma to 10, and a midwife. I became a midwife in 1998 to serve women of all socio-economic backgrounds and provide equal, loving and compassionate care to all.

I have extensive experience in providing midwifery and health care services to women internationally. (I have included a brief description of my work at the end of this letter.) The plight of the refugee women in the current great migration to Europe is profoundly distressing to me.

And so I am traveling to Greece (5 weeks) and Turkey (4 weeks) from February 14 to April 20 of this year, and will be going with an organization called Sisters in Health. My goals are three: to give well-woman care, and maternity care to the women that are arriving and are temporarily camped in Lesbos, Greece; to travel to Turkey to work at the large refugee camp in Suruc, where I will provide women’s health care as well; and lastly, I want to bring with me 500 women’s comfort/hygiene kits to take with me and have the money to purchase more products while there. Listed below are the items that I am planning to take with me. (you can find these on my youcaring web page).

I am additionally responsible for all of my other expenses: air, ground transport, accommodation and excess baggage fees.

I am just one person, but one person, with an army of supporters, can do BIG things. Every little bit will help. Even a $5 donation would help. Please help me make this trip the best that it can be!

And please feel free to share this opportunity with your family, friends, Facebook, and any other source you might have.

I am drawn to give my time and services and heart energy to these refugees. They are ordinary people, like you and me, in extraordinary circumstances. Thank you for considering supporting these brave women.

Blessings,

Sandi Blankenship, RM, CPM

https://www.youcaring.com/sandra-blankenship-480179

Ciao! syria header

Day 5 – Epic Summer Roadtrip with Momma – Guest post

Posted on June 29, 2015 by flamidwyfe

Today’s guest post is by another 11 year old granddaughter, Faelynn.

June 29, 2015 Sunday

Today we ate Fruity Pebbles for breakfast. Then we went to Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden and then we went on a carousel.

Now we’re in a museum called The National Museum of American History. We ate lunch at the cafeteria part of the museum. Then we went on a 3-D simulator in the museum which was fun cause it felt like we were on a roller coaster. Now we’re walking around the museum…

Now we’re at a museum called The National Museum of Natural History. It’s soo cool! Tonight we’re go to Boltz Burgers again. Yummy!

Sadie sketching next to another sketcher.

This last photo is of me and Pam. Pam is my friend Natalie’s friend and we were both on The Mall at the same time. We had never met. So we both stopped what we were doing, met at the Carousel, Sadie snapped the pic and we were all on our way, in under 3 minutes! We have a lot in common and I look forward to spending more than 3 minutes with her in the near future!

Maasi Mara Kenyan Safari

Posted on August 2, 2014 by flamidwyfe

So, all work and no play makes Sandi a grumpy person, LOL. I told our trip organizer, Natalie, I really didn’t want to go to Kenya without adding a safari in. That’s like coming to South Florida and not going to the beach! So our lovely host, Roberta, planned us a safari. And WHAT AN EXPERIENCE IT WAS!!! We did a 3 hour evening safari, spent the night in tents and then a 3 hour sunrise safari. Most pics are mine (taken on my iPhone 5) and a few belong to Natalie and Maya (both of whom had real cameras on them, lol) I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

CHEETAH

BEAUTIFUL LION – WE SAW A MOMMA AND 3 CUBS THE EVENING BEFORE.

ZEBRA… SEE THE BABY?

STUNNING

AFRICAN BUFFALO

YOUNG GIRAFFE

CHEETAH

GIRAFFE

LION

OSTRICH

I JUMPED OUT FOR A QUICK PIT STOP, MAYA CAUGHT ME… ZEBRA AND WILDEBEEST IN THE BACKGROUND… AMAZING!

I TOOK THIS WITH MY iPHONE… SUNSET

PUMBA AKA WART HOG

THE WILDEBEEST WERE FUNNY. WE WOULD DRIVE UP ON THEM, THEY WOULD RUN A FEW YARDS AND THEN TURN AROUND AND LOOK AT US AS IF SAYING, “YOU WANNA PIECE OF ME??” … TOO FUNNY

ZEBRA… ONE OF THE NEATEST THINGS WAS EARLIER IN THE TRIP, WE SAW ZEBRA HANGING OUT ON THE SIDE OF THE HIGHWAY GRAZING WITH THE COWS.

On My Way, Home Sweet Home

Posted on July 2, 2014 by flamidwyfe

I’m sitting in the airport hotel, dressed, packed, phones charged, coffee in hand excited to be going home.

It’s been a fantastic work trip that included some play time. Two adorable baby boys born 2 weeks apart in China, time spent getting to know 2 more families who I will love and cherish… So blessed to have been welcomed into their homes and be with them while experiencing the beauty of birth. It never gets old for me, no matter how many times I’m present at a birth.

I also traveled to Jinan, China (near Bejing) to teach staff at the hospital there about the importance of water birth and breastfeeding. Beautiful city, lovely people!

I also was part of a month long virtual race in June. Held by fellow blogger Tatjana, the Midsummer Sun Kilomathon was a great way to get in that much needed exercise. It was HOT here in China and Hong Kong, but I did it. In fact I completed 107 kilometers which is 66.5 miles!

I finished off the trip to Asia with a 5 day trip with my friend Lillian “Alice” Sanpere to Ubud, Bali. We stayed with Robin Lim who runs Bumi Sehat, a non-profit birth center where care for the locals is free. What a giving, loving, honorable woman. Doing so much to ensure that babies enter this world gently. Alice and I were invited to be part of a birth there and it was magical.

So, I’ll let the photos do the talking. I’ve got to call for the bell cart to get my stuff over to the airport.

Ciao!

Dukan Diet – Update

Posted on June 20, 2014 by flamidwyfe

I can’t believe it’s been 13 days since I posted. Caught another cute baby and did tons of clean eating and exercise while in Shanghai.
Still on track, down 11 pounds!!!
Just spent two days in Hong Kong with my friend Alice…

And found a lovely running path this morning in Shenzhen…

Pleased with my progress!
How are your summer plans going!?
Ciao!

Dukan Diet – Days 9 & 10 – A baby and an update on Tiff

Posted on June 11, 2014 by flamidwyfe

Eating strict Dukan, feeling groovy! Feeling very good about the diet and the exercise. I set a goal to do 25 miles by July 1st, I surpassed that this afternoon! It’s the 11th! Woot!!!

The support I’ve had for Tiffany from family and friends, local and afar, has been amazing. I feel so blessed. Tiffany is feeling overwhelmed by the generosity. A reply yesterday from her had me in tears… My love, Tiffany, you DO deserve the love and support of all these people. TIFF had her heel set and she’s now in a cast up to her knee, no weight bearing for 6 weeks. Hard with four kids, but she’ll be able to do it with continued support. She had pain relief initially we the cast, but now that her swelling is going down, she’s actually having pain again. The doc will put on a smaller cast Monday, to support it more.

And…. A baby. A lovely wee boy slipped into my hands yesterday afternoon. This is my 2nd of the two babies I came to China to assist earthside. I’ve said it a few thousand times and will continue saying, I am so blessed to be present and in service to families at their births. I came home, had dinner and did 5K, faster than I had in a long time (which is slow for most, but fast for me… At least I’m out there, lol). A birth high… Feels so good!

During this run I also restarted C25K because Jenni and Sadie are doing it (my oldest daughter and my granddaughter). They started yesterday, too. So when I get home, we’ll be up to speed with each other and can run together. We’re doing the virtual kilomathon together this month and a 5K near home together in September. Three generations running together… How cool is that?!?!

Dukan Diet Redo – Day 6 – PV

Posted on June 7, 2014 by flamidwyfe

Another day in Shanghai. Went out on foot today while the sun was shining. Found a park nearby with an elevated walkway and a running path marked off in 25m increments. Pretty awesome!